格好いい (かっこういい) 'kakkouii' (cool)

Harajuku ("meadow lodging") is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station in Tokyo, Japan. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion.

Harajuku is an between Shinjuku and Shibuya. The area has two main shopping streets, Omotesandō and Takeshita Street (Takeshita-dōri). The latter caters to youth fashions and has many small stores selling Gothic Lolita, visual kei, rockabilly, hip-hop, and punk outfits, in addition to fast food outlets and so forth.

In recent years Omotesandō has seen a rise in branches of expensive fashion stores such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Prada. The area known as "Ura-Hara" (back streets of Harajuku) is a center of Japanese fashion for younger people — brands such as A Bathing Ape and Undercover have shops in the area.

The term "Harajuku Girls" has been used by English-language media to describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of Harajuku. These girls may be members of various sub-cultures including Gothic Lolita, Ganguro, Gyaru, and Kogal, or may often cosplay as characters from an anime, movie, or manga. Most recently this phrase has made it into mainstream pop culture by Gwen Stefani, who lauched a clothing and accessories label in 2004 called Harajuku Lovers. Stefani also hired "Harajuku Girls" as back-up dancers for her solo albums.

So why am I telling you about this…. Singer Gwen Stefani is partnering up once more with Coty to launch this time a line of 5 new fragrances called Harajuku Lovers inspired both by her personal interest in Japanese pop culture and street fashion, as well as her perceptions of her 4 back-up singers in real life. The five new perfumes are christened Love, Lil' Angel, Music, Baby after the stage-names of her back-up "Harajuku Girls", and G for Gwen Stefani herself although she has purposefully decided not to appear on the adverts for the collection.

The real names of the Harajuku girls are Maya Chino, Jennifer Kita, Rino Nakasone, and Mayuko Kitayama. You can find more fun paraphernalia about them on the Harajuku Lovers site (http://www.harajukulovers.com/). I love the bottle design and want to buy all of them!

In addition to the perfume the merchandise is irresistible too –the children’s line is so cute, and the Color Me Cute watch is another must have! I hope you enjoy this post and check out the line - I know I will!!じゃあまたね “jā mata ne” (see you later)